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Dean's
Digital World
Computer-Assisted Reporting By Dean Tudor
Computer-assisted reporting (CAR): that's the hodge-podge term
that is now being applied to all forms of computer work being used
by reporters in pursuit of a story. But, it once meant using mainly
numbers and statistics, as in "precision reporting" (developed
by Phil Meyer, utilizing social science research techniques) or
"spreadsheet journalism" (using spreadsheet and database
programs, and primarily referring to activities from 1980 through
1993). Now it means any of three things - the first level of CAR is really
just knowing the basics of operating a computer, using a word processor
in typewriting mode, or "sending a story to an editor".
It can also mean using graphics or photo-images, and even display
and layout. Or, digital radio and images. These are all technically-oriented
procedures that have little to do with reporting techniques. It's
like using a computer as you would a typewriter. The second level is a bit more ambitious: online searching. Here,
you surf the Internet with a webrowser such as Netscape or Lynx,
attend to E-mail, read various discussion groups and forums, look
at news items, use CD-ROMs, library catalogues, electronic encyclopedias.
Generally, you'll be searching for information and gathering it
in an electronic mode, saving what you find in some text retrieval
program such as List or askSam, or even a wordprocesser such as
WordPerfect or MS Word. Online searching, through NEXIS or InfoMart,
can be extremely useful for reporters looking for names of people
as potential sources. But even so, here at the second level, you can cruise through a
lot of stuff just toggling a few buttons. We still have not reached
the original intent of CAR. It is this second level that is pushing
journalists into CAR, and into thinking: if I surf the Internet,
then I've done CAR... It just isn't so. For there is the third level of CAR, the really
tough application that takes no prisoners. This is the heady world
of spreadsheet journalism. And this is what CAR is all about. This separates the men from the boys, the women from the girls.
If you cannot use a spreadsheet, then (to my mind) you're simply
not doing computer-assisted reporting. So what advantages does spreadsheet journalism have? Well, as a
reporter, you can obtain more information that previously was not
readily available. Any computerized analysis of a file can be cross-indexed
against another file to reveal similarities or differences. With
paper records recorded on computer files, and cross-checked against
other files, reporters can save up to TEN YEARS search time!! So
reporters can obtain that information much more quickly. With the results of a computerized analysis of those files, reporters
can manipulate information which was not capable of such analysis
before. Computers can sort and rank data in a flash, and reporters
can easily spot trends and patterns in the results. Journalists
can also create their own databases, using a spreadsheet or a database
program. Collected data from government and business sources can
be entered, as well as the results from interviews. And good stories
can result, dealing with red-lining in the banking industry, the
insurance crisis, corruption in the organ transplant business, the
criminal justice system, property tax inequities, the status of
education through the use of educational tests, political campaign
expenses, public opinion, prison system, inequities in the health
care industry, toxic waste, gambling, drunk driving, drug-dealing,
nuclear accidents, political contributions, government inspections,
civil servant salaries, religious cults and groups, highway construction,
child abuse, occupational safety, pension abuse, government budgets. Good topics all - and all American. Why? Because the American government has the philosophy that all
government records are open unless labelled closed (through the
US Administrative Procedures Act of 1946). The understanding in
Canada is that all files are closed unless labelled open. And that's
British common law. Consequently, you can easily find an American's
SSN, but you cannot find a Canadian's SIN without difficulty. Does this matter? Well, it does if you are concerned about privacy
and the shrinking world of what privavcy is left. Otherwise, Canadian
governments will be happy to sell you limited data at a high price,
while the American government will sell you a lot of data for the
mere cost of transferring it to another tape or CD-ROM. Thus, the
US Census can be had for about $99 US, while the Canadian Census
(dealing with a tenth of the US size) will cost upwards of $25,000!! Is this fair? No it isn't. And this policy deliberately prevents good CAR stories about government and business malfeasance since we are unable to obtain all of the necessary data. Sounds like stonewalling to me, with the same attitude as government FOIA/Access pronouncements of the past. So what can we do? Well, we can create our own spreadsheets and
databases, getting the information in bits and pieces and inputting
our own data. We can lobby the government to release files and tapes.
We can prepare ourselves by learning how to use a spreadsheet -
right now - and working on local stories. Some suggested ideas,
all involving some work at inputting data, include traffic accidents,
crime, budgets, and political contributions. A student at Ryerson's School of Journalism created a database
to determine the worst intersection in Toronto for bicycle accidents.
He input the data himself, and he got it published. It's not much, but it's a beginning. To this end, Ryerson's School
of Journalism is setting up the Ryerson Institute for Computer-Assisted
Reporting in Canada (RICARC) with a mandate specifically to create
and run customized training sessions and courses, to hold on-site
conferences, to publish reference anbd resource material in both
print and electronic formats, to maintain a resource collection
of identified Canadian databases, to create and maintain our own
databases for research, and to lobby for the release of electronic
data. Meanwhile, until RICARC gets underway in Spring of 1996, here's
some more interesting material on "level two" in the CAR
world... The Internet moves so fast that by the time you read this column,
there will be about 12 more sites or important databases up and
running, about 2 will have shut down, and about 5 will have moved
to another location. Still, that's a net gain of 10 addresses or
areas containing the sources you need for your story. What am I talking about here? Let's review the online world of
searching: there are commercial databases, there are bulletin boards,
there are CD-ROMs in an interactive mode. And there is also the
Internet. Governments have bulletin boards (the prime leader is the US Federal
Government, through its FedWorld sites), but there are very few
in Canada. Ontario has a couple - one deals with the environment
- and so does British Columbia. I am sure that there are others. But all bulletin board systems (called BBS) are mainly a local
phone number call away, and most government boards are also on the
Internet. There are, of course, no governments offering commercial
databases nor interactive CD-ROMs. They want you to buy the CD-ROM.
However, some governments are on local Free-Nets, offering publicly-released
data. That leaves us with the Internet, a sprawling collection of local
networks that actually works in providing names of sources. There
are three main application programs working for you on the Internet.
One is email, which may be one-on-one, or a restricted mail distribution
list, or netnews public postings. Another is telnet, which allows
you to sign onto another computer - if you have a loginID and password.
This allows you full-range to whatever is accessible on such a computer,
ie., you can leave messages, you can upload/download, you can process
files. The same things you can do with your own computer account. The third major program is now known as the Web or WWW (World Wide
Web). The Web allows you to "get and view" files maintained
on public sections of computers around the world. It is a further
enhancement of Gopher which itself was a further enhancement of
File Transfer Protocol. Hardly anybody does FTP anymore except for
masses of binary information. And even these can be had through
the Web. The value of the Web, for reporters, is that most files
have names and addresses attached to them, so you can actually contact
the person who put up the file. This is something not available
by Gopher or by FTP. And much government information is available
through your Web browser, be it Lynx, Cello, Mosaic, or Netscape. So here are some VERY important sites, each containing names and
addresses of Canadian federal government officials. This article
would be more than twice as long if I attempted to cover the provinces
and the larger cities. But I will include the major gateweays. Maybe
next time... One of the first places to look is Cannon's Guide to Canadian
Government Information (http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/discipline/Government/CanGuide).
Note: these "addresses" must be typed into your browser
EXACTLY as we print them within the parentheses and without spaces,
and they are case sensitive. You might be thinking that you should
go to Cannon's guide now, and skip this article. But that's wrong
because she doesn't have everything. A second good source is Stuart
Clamen's Guide to Canadiana (http://www.cs.cmu.edu:8001/Web/Unofficial/Canadiana).
He's got most of the rest. And if you have telnet, you might want
to go to the National Capital Commission Free-Net in Ottawa (telnet://freenet.carleton.ca)
and log on as a "visitor" -- or get an account. The federal
government has tons of material there, usually from all of the smaller,
Ottawa-based agencies, boards and commissions. Otherwise, you could
also try the National Library of Canada's Canadian Information Page
(http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ecaninfo.htm). If you have a factual and easy query about Canadian life and culture,
try the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC. (http://www.nstn.ca/wshdc/).
They get these kind of questions all the time from American schoolkids.
Or, you may want the Canadiana Collection at (http://www.usask.ca),
with the 1991 basic population statistics, lyrics to the anthems,
pictures of flags and arms, and much travel information. Other major
sources for that deep, archival and background area should include
the National Library of Canada's Information Pages (http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ecaninfo.htm),
which is like the Library of Congress site. The Canadian Parliament
site, also resembling the LC site, is (http://www.parl.gc.ca/english).
For geographic data and maps, try the National Atlas Information
Service of Canada (http://www-nais.ccm.emr.ca). Note that all federal
government sites have equal amounts of data and names/addresses
in the French language. Search engines for the Canadian govermnment include theCanadian
government information explorer (Champlain) at (http://info.ic.gc.ca/champlain/champlain.html)
and Canadian Federal Government Links at (gopher://gopher.nlc- More specific sites include CPAC Online (Cable Parliamentary Channel)
at (http://www.screen.com/english.cpac), the Dept. of Communications
at (http://debra.dgbt.doc.ca), the Supreme Court of Canada's decisions
at (gopher://gopher.droit.Umontreal.ca/11/English/SCC), the CBC
(http://www.cbc.ca/index.html), the CRTC Need the weather? Try the Canadian Meterological Centre at (http://cmits02.dow.on.doe.ca/climate/climate.html).
And you should be able to find and then add to your bookmark the
weather for your region, so you can get it within seconds and without
future menuing. Statistics Canada is at (http://www.statcan.ca/welcome.html), with
extensive explanations of all the publications and how to get them,
along with links to such as the Consumer Price Index and the Census.
(There is current and early population census data at the University
of Toronto - gopher://gopher.epas.utoronto.ca:70/11/data/census/).
The Census of Agriculture is (gopher://gopher.epas.utoronto.ca/11/data/agric).
You can also go directly to StatsCan's Daily (http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/today/daily.htm)
for the latest summary information on what is being released today. Larger pointers to specific resources should include the Canadian
Legal Resources at (http://mindlink.net/drew_jackson/mdj.html) which
has gateways to many legal databases and sources on the Internet.
Canadian Environmental WebServers at (http://www.ns.doe.ca/inform/points/env.html#can)
is offered by Environment Canada as a series of Green Lane pointers
to other government sources and networks around the world. Here are the important provincial sites, full of gateways. One
is the Quebec government (http://www.gouv.qc.ca/anglais/index.html),
another the BC Legislative Assembly (http://bbs.qp.gov.bc.ca/legis/legis.htm)
or the BC government (http://www.gov.bc.ca). Alberta is (http://www.gov.ab.ca),
Manitoba is (http;//www.gov.mb.ca), New Brunswick is (http://www.gov.nb.ca),
and PEI is (http://www.gov.pe.ca). Ontario government is (http://www.gov.on.ca).
For cities, try the Free-Net site listing (http://herald.usask.ca/~scottp/free.html).
All Free-Nets have copious amounts of local government data and
sources. The largest problem you will find is getting a proper and correct
E-mail address. The absolutely best page that I have seen for gateways to information
on the Internet for journalists is my own page. I'm not being modest
here, because I developed it expressly for all kinds of journalism
students from around the world, and there is a significant amount
of Canadian content. Try it (http://www.acs.ryerson.ca/~journal/megasources.html).
Dean Tudor is Sources Informatics Consultant and a professor
of Journalism and Information Science at Ryerson University. He
can be reached at dtudor@acs.ryerson.ca. Published in Sources,
Number 37, Winter 1996 . See: Other
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